Defamation Cases May Harm Turkey EU Bid
By Amberin Zaman, Special to The Times
July 14, 2006
Los Angeles Times
July 14 2006
ANKARA, Turkey – Six months after internationally acclaimed author
Orhan Pamuk was cleared on charges of insulting the Turkish identity,
another best-selling novelist is facing similar charges.
Elif Shafak could serve up to three years in jail if convicted over
remarks made by a fictional character in her latest book, "The Bastard
of Istanbul." The novel touches on one of the most sensitive subjects
in Turkey, the Armenian genocide.
Shafak’s case is likely to further tarnish the image of Turkey, which
is engaged in membership talks with the 25-member European Union. EU
politicians and diplomats are expressing concern over the number of
cases brought against Turkish writers and journalists under Article
301 of the penal code, which outlines penalties for defaming the
Turkish Republic or "Turkishness."
Olli Rehn, the European official supervising membership talks, said
Wednesday that Turkish courts were failing to comply with EU standards.
Rehn’s statement came after a court Tuesday confirmed the conviction of
Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist, who was given a six-month
jail sentence for writing an article in which he exhorted Armenians
to overcome their hatred of Turks. The article was construed as an
insult to Turks.
The court postponed Dink’s sentence and asked a local court to review
the case. Rehn said the ruling served as an example that could be
followed in similar cases.
According to the Turkish Publishers’ Assn., 47 writers are being
prosecuted on charges that include insulting Kemal Ataturk, the
founder of modern Turkey, and "inciting racial hatred."
The cases fly in the face of broad reforms introduced in 2002 that
helped persuade the EU to open long-delayed membership talks with
Turkey. The EU repeatedly has warned that it could suspend the talks
if Turkey continues to breach accession requirements.
Shafak’s book is the story of an Armenian family in San Francisco and
a Turkish family in Istanbul whose lives intersect over nine decades.
Its references to the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks during and after World War I are by Shafak’s own
admission "difficult to digest" because the overwhelming majority of
Turks deny that the genocide took place.
However, the book has topped best-seller lists, selling more than
50,000 copies since its publication in March. "The feedback I received
has been very, very positive," Shafak, 35, said in a recent interview.
Ragip Zarakolu, president of the publishers’ association, said such
works are gaining a wider audience because more Turks are seeking to
explore their country’s past.
But the books also face a nationalist backlash.
Zarakolu is facing three court cases over books he has published. Two
of them deal with the Armenian genocide.
Kemal Kerincsiz, a right-wing lawyer, filed charges against Shafak
last month. In one of the passages, presented by Kerincsiz as evidence
against the author, an Armenian character says, "I am the grandchild
of genocide survivors who lost all their relatives in the hands of
Turkish butchers in 1915."
Shafak argued that comments made by fictional characters could not be
used to press charges, and the case was throw out. An appeals court,
however, overruled that decision last week.
Kerincsiz and his ultra-nationalist lawyers group known as the Turkish
Jurists’ Union also filed the complaint against Pamuk for asserting
in an interview with a Swiss newspaper that "1 million Armenians
and 30,000 Kurds died in these lands, but no one but I dares talk
about it."
Shafak says she believes the wave of prosecutions is part of a broader
campaign by those who oppose EU membership.
"In my country there is a clash of opinions between those who want
Turkey to join the EU and to become a more open society and those
who want to keep Turkey as an insular, xenophobic, nationalist and
closed society," she said.
Support for EU membership among Turks plunged over the last year to 43%
from 74%, according to one survey. And a 13-nation Pew Global Attitudes
report that was released in June said only 16% of Turks surveyed had
a favorable opinion of Christians and 15% had a favorable opinion
of Jews.